Rogue (Under Rewriting)

Chapter Forty Three

Upstate New York, 2023, moments later

"Scott. Are you okay?" Steve asked after a few minutes of Scott pacing and mumbling to himself.

"Yeah. I'm fine." He answered as he continued to struggle to find the words for what he was trying to ask. "Have you ever studied Quantum Physics?"

"Only to make conversation." Natasha shrugged.

"No." Alex said shortly after, bewildered.

"Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my..." He paused to find the right words to use to describe their relationship. "She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

"I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years." Alex sympathized.

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours." Scott frantically explained as the other three shared a bewildered look. "See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving."

He strides over to pick up Nat's sandwich, and bites into it. He quickly ate the sandwich before spotting a bowl of macaroni. He moved to grab the bowl but Alex shoot her magic out at it, moving it away and into the kitchen.

"Scott, what are you talking about?" Steve questioned as he turned to face the frantic man.

"What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if, we could somehow control the chaos, and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like... Like before Thanos." He explained to the best of his ability.

"Wait, are you talking about a time machine?" Alex questioned, her hope rising.

"No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a... Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be some way... There's gotta be...some w... it's crazy." He stammered.

"Scott, I get e-mails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore." Natasha reassures.

"So who do we talk to about this?" He asked glancing at Natasha.

*****

"So you can really make yourself the size of an ant?" The curious voice of Dakota asked Scott as they drove towards the Stark Household.

"Well, yeah, I could. Not anymore." Scott answered.

"Why?"

"Well, uh, my suit is kind of broken at the moment." Scott explained.

"Oh, that's lame." The boy sighed from the back seat.

"Dakota Raye!" Alex scolded. "That's not very nice. Apologize."

"Sorry." The six year old muttered before looking out the window. They drove in silence the rest of the way, which wasn't very long.

"We're here." Natasha informed, looking into the back seat at her son.

"Yay!" He cheered as Alex unbuckled him. Alex helped him out of the car, lifted him to sit on her hip as Tony walked up the hill with his daughter. Tony walks up the stair to his house before setting Morgan down and pushing her inside.

"Why don't you go play with Morgan, Bub?" Alex suggested as she placed the boy on the ground.

"Okay." He said as he excitedly ran off and into the house. The group of adults slowly made their way to the porch before explaining their idea to the billionaire.

"Now, we know what it sounds like..." Scott started after he had finished explaining.

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve questioned.

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" The group all look confused as Tony talked science.

"Thank you." Steve muttered as Tony handed him a drink.

"In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home." Tony simplified.

"I did." Scott challenged.

"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?" Tony asked.

"A time heist?" Scott asked as he tried to hide the pride that grew in him.

"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?" Tony moves to hand Natasha and Alex a drink to which the blonde declined.

"The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them." Scott explained.

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back." Natasha suggested.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony countered.

"I don't believe we would." Steve admitted.

"Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise." Tony took a sip from the cup in his hand before leaning against the porch railing.

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events -" Scott started.

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott." Tony interrupted. "Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"

"No." Scott muttered, embarrassed.

"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works." Tony explained.

"Tony... We have to take a stand." Alex tried to convince.

"We did stand. And yet, here we are."

"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did." His voice gets louder as he tries to sell his desperation to Tony. "And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even..."

"That's right, Scott, I won't even. I got a kid." Tony cut him off again as a door squeaked opened. Two pairs of footsteps padded towards the adults, Morgan going to her father and Dakota going to his mothers.

"Mommy told me to come and save you." Morgan told her father as he picked her up.

"Good job. I'm saved." Tony told her before turning to face the others. "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for eight."

"Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance." Steve tried as Tony passed him.

"I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch." Tony said before walking into the house. Alex and Dakota followed as the other three went to the car.

"You sure his good to stay here?" Alex asked Pepper as she walked from the kitchen.

"Of course!" The strawberry blonde exclaimed. "Dakota is welcome anytime."

"Thank you, Pep." Alex have the woman a hug before turning back to her son. "Behave. Don't cause trouble."

"Okay, Mom." The quickly said before running off. Alex started walking towards the door but stopped as she passed Tony.

"I get that you have a second chance and you don't want to risk it, Tony. I do too and I would do anything for them but just think. Think about the ones who don't get a chance at all." Alex glanced as Tony, her expression soft. "Think about Bailey. Think about Peter. They deserve a chance."